Berichten in May 2012

The Venucia D50 has entered the already extremely crowded China car market. Venucia is a sub-brand from the Dongfeng-Nissan joint venture, the D50 is their first car and based on the old Nissan Tiida. Price starts at 67.800 and ends at 83.800 yuan and that is cheaper than expected.

Mercedes-Benz is offering a new car for those who think a S600L to cheap and a Maybach too ugly. This is the Mercedes-Benz S600L ‘Grand Edition Designo’, a special edition based on the S600L fitted with a bit more luxury and a custom-made interior. It is a limited edition again but Benz doesn’t say how many they will make.

Volvo brings the R-Design line to China. The start with the V60 R-Design that will be offered in a limited edition of only 333 examples, buyer can choose only four special colors: black, bright-blue, passion-red and snow-white. The V60 is imported and thus expensive, price for all this pretty is 499.900 yuan.

Mercedes-Benz is offering the mighty ML63 AMG for the first time in China, a smart move, the hunger for powerful SUV’s is insatiable on the Chinese car market. Price for the monster: 1.998 million yuan or 316.000 USD. Power, does not come cheap.

This is the new Gonow Aoosed GX5 SUV, it has been listed on the China car market, price starts at 135.800 yuan and ends at 151.800 yuan. The GX5 is based on the Aoosed G5 which debuted two years ago at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show was listed last year.

It is still May-day holiday in China, the Beijing Auto Show is still ongoing so there ain’t much new news. Time so for China Car History! And a very special car we have. This is the mighty Chery Fengyun limousine, a stretched version of the very mundane Chery Fengyun sedan which was based on the ancient Seat Toledo.

Here we have another brilliant Chinese home-made invention. This is the Wind Car, developed by one Tang Zhenpin from Beijing’s Tongzhou District. His airplane-like vehicle is basically an electric vehicle but with a smart addition: driving generates wind, wind drives the propeller, and the energy from the propeller charges the battery.

The Chinese battery and car maker BYD Co Ltd, partly owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said its profit for the first quarter of the year fell as much as 90 percent as its two biggest businesses were harmed by China’s slowing economy and Europe’s debt crisis.

BYD, a Shenzhen-based company, said in a financial report filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday that it had 11.73 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in revenue in the first quarter, up only 0.2 percent from the same period last year. Its net profit of 27 million yuan for the same period was down 89.86 percent year-on-year.

The new Fiat 500L mini-MPV has been spotted testing in China. The 500L debuted in Geneva in March and was also displayed at the Beijing Auto Show last week. Fiat will import the 500L into China starting late this year to compete with the very popular Mini Countryman.